Watch the Watchers: Join Us! Thursday, April 23rd at 6 PM at LA CAN – 838 E. 6th Street, Los Angeles, X-Street: Gladys. We’ll be having a Watch the Watchers training to get ready to document and film police technology and tactics at the upcoming march on May 1st!

We’ll be having our monthly Coalition meeting to discuss our campaigns and strategize for the future. Additionally, we’re bringing back our Surveillance 101 Presentation. You’ll learn about the local policies, programs, and technologies used by LAPD and other local agencies which keep you tracked, trapped, and criminalized here in the LA area. Most importantly, learn how you can stand up to these policies and fight back!

We’ll also be talking about the upcoming community hearings being put-on by the city’s Human Relations Commission–a chance for our communities to impact and highlight the dreadfulness of such policies like Gang Injunctions and the nationwide and locally pioneered Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) program.

On Tuesday, the Coalition held a press conference and, once again, visited the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners (LAPC) to admonish and denounce their failed oversight and dismissiveness of community input of concerns. The LAPC fails in holding LAPD accountable for its brutality, botched programs, and intentional sabotaging of the federal court’s Consent Decree.

Due to the LAPC’s callousness and rubber-stamp function, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition has submitted a formal complaint to the United States’ Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder.

We bring this issue to the attention of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) for two reasons. First, we believe that the actions of the LAPD and the Commission unlawfully amount to “a pattern or practice of conduct … that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.” Second, we believe such practices are not new to the LAPD, and that such practices clearly violate the terms of the 2001 consent decree. We are also concerned with what appears to be intentional sabotage of specific terms of the 2001 consent decree. Evidence indicates that officers in LAPD South Bureau and LAPD Central Bureau have strategically tampered with in-car video system equipment.

Stay tuned as we keep the community updated on the effort to bring real oversight to the LAPD and it’s failed Police Commission. #LAPCFails

DarkMatter Presents – April 18 at 7 PM

With an increase in racist and queer-phobic violence and a state that uses our bodies to advance its imperialist agenda at home and abroad, what’s become apparent is that LGBTIQ rights have become co-opted. JOIN DarkMatter for a night of poetry, polemic, and healing as we not only critique — but also imagine new queer futures.

Based in New York, DARKMATTER is a trans south asian performance art duo comprised of Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian.Facebook Event Here

Need Your help – Action Through Social Media

The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is asking for your help with expanding our social media coverage. Here are some quick and easy ways you can help in the effort to effectively use social media as a weapon in the fight against LAPD brutality and oppression:

2. Once you have “liked” the page, you will find an option to invite your friends on the page. Please take a few moments to invite your friends list to “like” the page. You will see a small “invite” button next to each one of your friends. Hit that button for each of your friends (they should appear on a drop-down list.)

3. Share Stop LAPD Spying Coalition facebook posts.

4. Follow us on twitter @stoplapdspying

5. When you see a Stop LAPD Spying Coalition tweet, please re-tweet using the hashtag #LAPCFAILS